erratic piano: 8 track ‘live’ recording, piano and electronics
The electronics were controlled during the recording by two MIDI pedals and an analog one so that only minimal adjustments were necessary in the final mixdown.
The technical layout of the electronics is a chaining of diverse digital sound processors, whose continuous changes of the individual parameters are registered in the computer and run automatically.
The sound effects depend on the input of the piano, the output is regulated by pedals and is ‘intentionally’ unpredictable, giving the player a musical input in turn, the electronics being a virtual duo partner.Erratic piano developed from improvisations  loose idea collections  which little by little assembled themselves into a structure, and after the material had been inspected, classified and organized, the composition gradually emerged.

scheduled organ: organ and electronics (incorporated later)Scheduled organ is based on the recording of an improvised concert  arranged into sections and therefore reproducible to a certain degree. The individual ‘mentally transcribed’ parts were replayed from memory and the resulting takes were partly mixed with the original one.
The computer-aided automation of the sound processes, the interplay of input and output and also the practical handling of the electronic setup resemble erratic piano at a live realization.

Stylistically, the two pieces both perform a balancing act between abstract material and harmonious and melodic elements, which merge into each other and lose themselves again. It may be risky to mix different genres, which inevitably poses a challenge, however, to the confrontation. ‘Sitting on the fence’ can be comfortable, sometimes, too!

The idea and the necessity to conceive erratic piano in multichannel form arose from a concert at which the piano was unamplified and electronics came from loudspeakers placed behind the audience. To provide corresponding acoustics, if the music is heard through an electronic medium, it seemed reasonable to image the recording in dolby surround sound.
In the multichannel version of scheduled organ the great [Hauptwerk] and the choir [Rückpositiv] are played back from different speakers  a sound experience which otherwise only the organist knows, sitting between them.

For the rendition of the surround sound, the DVD is basically a suitable medium. But a DVD without pictures? This presumably does not correspond exactly to what is expected, so I engaged video artists to make films for the existing ‘soundtrack’.
It was thrilling for me to see how the acoustic event could be translated into a visual one and, above all, how film and music would be perceived, finally, in mutual relation to each other.
The soundtrack for Die Novotnyorgel v.1.0.1, a stop motion film by the visual artist Nana Schulz, was composed afterwards. There, the organ and piano recordings have been recyceled once more, among other sounds and audio effects.
“The film is based on a sculpture named Die Novotnyorgel  Detail, part of an organ case, made out of lots of different material, to be stuck together like a gimmick of kinder surprise. It has been modelled on the composer’s drawing of his ideal organ. The animation’s protagonists are a diminished version of Josef Novotny  a figure built from the fork of a branch, fabric and epoxi resin  and the ‘living’ organ.” (N. Schulz)

recorded in Austria
organ: 2005 in Murau (concert on July 17th)* and 2007 in Gaspoltshofen**
piano: 2008 in Vienna